13.05.25 Castell (SH 625 512)
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| Castell (SH 625 512) |
A day in the company of
Mark Trengove and John Kirk investigating Cwm Llan with a small prominence hill
thrown in to keep the surveyor happy.
Cwm Llan is impressive and almost alpine like as it heads skyward from
the confines of Nant Gwynant. This cwm
eventually butts up against the southern face of Yr Wyddfa, which is mainly
hidden on the lower section of the Watkin Path due to the bulk of Yr Lliwedd as
its south-western façade tumbles down toward the upper cwm.
The continuing high
pressure system gave idyllic conditions, with a welcome slight breeze, beautiful
blue sky and warmth predominating. We
had a number of objectives during our planned walk and were at the car park and
starting our ascent of the Watkin Path by 11.20am.
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| The south face of Yr Wyddfa |
The car park is positioned
at approximately 80m in height and therefore the Watkin Path gives the greatest
ascent of any of the six major walking routes leading to the summit of Wales’
highest peak. In its lower part are a
series of waterfalls and these today were gathering the masses with a number of
bikini clad young ladies venturing up the path.
We had no intention of
aiming for the delights of the summit of Yr Wyddfa, but planned on reaching the
upper quarry and examine the rocks hereabouts as well as on our route up.
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| The start of the Watkin Path |
The Watkin Path was
built under the guidance of Sir Edward Watkin, who in the late 1800s had
purchased the southern side of Yr Wyddfa and built the Chalet; his residence in
North Wales. Watkin was a remarkable
person and the Wikipedia page dedicated to his life is a much better place to
read of his exploits rather than any I could attempt to write.
Unfortunately the Chalet
burnt down in 1960, but we wanted to find its remains and also examine the
rocks close by. Our interest in the
rocks en route was partly based on having two enthusiastic geologists in our
midst, the third person being the surveyor and blogger.
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| The greens of early summer |
The initial route up the
path was beautiful in late morning dappled light casting through the greened
trees, giving both intimacy and welcome shade.
John had pinpointed where the remains of Watkin’s Chalet were and they
are easily found, being straight beside the path just before it joins another path
heading up from the lane that leads to the farm of Hafod y Llan.
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| The flat grassed area that was once the front garden of Walkin's Chalet |
We investigated the
remains for quite sometime, finding the stone walled corner of the building as
well as the old stove, which was now upturned on top of one of the two small
piles of discarded remains, now forgotten amongst a plethora of bricks and
debris.
It was here that
Gladstone stayed when he visited Sir Edward and officially opened the path to
the summit. The plaque commemorating the
event is pinned to what is known as the Gladtone Rock and was one of a number
of things we wanted to visit during our exploration; however this exploration
mainly consisted of taking fragments of rock for later analysis, all of which
were labelled and bagged.
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| The old stove, now upended |
We stopped for lunch
under an outcrop of rock just above the remains of Watkin’s old residence. It was shaded here and relatively quiet with
just a few people heading down from the hill and a few also heading up. We waved and asked where they were heading to and
from; many that were heading up were aiming for the stream and waterfalls having
seen them on TikTok.
After lunch we continued
up out of the shaded confines of the lower wooded area and now in to the direct
sunlight, which remained with us for the majority of the day ahead, only
disappearing due to the relative lateness of our descent.
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| The continuation of the path leading to the waterfalls |
We broke off from the
main path before the waterfalls and headed toward a small prominence hill
beside the steep disused incline that wedged its way through the bwlch of the
hill. This incline would at one time
have been used in conjunction with one of a number of working quarries that dot
the upper cwm.
The recorded name of the
hill is Castell and it looked attractive from our approach, with steep sides of
rock and grass and newly sprouted fern and bluebells as accompaniment. As I headed up, John settled in the shade of
the flat bedded incline at the bwlch, whilst Mark followed me.
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| The view of Yr Wyddfa and the waterfalls from Castell |
The top of the hill had
a couple of candidates for high point, each relatively close to one another. I chose my spot for high point and proceeded
to assemble the Trimble to gaher summit data.
As it quietly beeped away gathering its individual datum points I stood
a safe distance away so as not to disturb satellite reception, scribbled all
necessary detail in my surveying notebook and admired the view down to Nant
Gwynant and up toward the summit of Yr Wyddfa.
It really was a marvelous place to be on such a beautiful day, and one
that can only have an occasional visit from a rogue hill walker or two.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Castell |
Once the Trimble had
done its stuff I hesitantly made my way down through the stepped rock and
joined John and Mark in the shade for late lunch and conversation. We still had a bit of ascent to do until
reaching the top quarry and therefore after packing everything away we headed
back to the main path and up past the series of waterfalls and bathers.
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| The path above the waterfalls |
On our way to the upper
quarry we visited the Gladstone Rock.
This is where William Ewart Gladstone, who at the time was aged 83 and
serving his fourth term as Prime Minister, spoke to the gathered masses of
Eryri and for want of a better phrase declared the Watkin Path open.
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| The plaque commemorating Gladstone's visit |
I was looking forward to
another shaded rest when we reached the memorial plaque, but all too soon we
were off upward, following the path as it headed beyond the upper waterfalls to
the quarry masters old residence and the upper quarries beyond the great spur
of Craig Ddu, which plummets downward from the south-western façade of Y
Lliwedd.
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| The quarry master's old residence |
It was here we rested,
but not for long as Mark had his eye on a large rock around the upper cwm that
had no doubt deposited itself from the ridge of Allt Maenderyn above, so as he
headed off John and I sat in shade, chatted and relaxed.
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| Heading toward the upper quarry |
Mark was gone for 30
minutes or so, we watched him make progress toward his boulder and then heard
the distinct sound of hammer on rock as another sample was bagged and
labelled. As he started his descent back
toward us John headed up to an intermediary high point waiting his return.
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| Yr Aran |
All that remained was
the descent to the valley below. An easy
thing to write, but by now the toil in the sun had taken its toll and on the
lower section I suffered as sweat continued to bubble from my brow and my steps
were getting shorter in length as my willpower ebbed. However, I’ve encountered many such descents
and all one has to do is put one step in front of the other and eventually the
car is reached.
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| The south face of Yr Wyddfa |
Having arrived at the
car I changed quickly in to dry clothes and we headed down valley to the
delights of a welcome meal in the Prince Llewelyn pub. After the meal Mark drove back to Mold and I
eventually arrived home just before midnight.
It had been a long but very rewarding day.
Survey Result:
Castell
Summit Height: 157.2m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 62554 51296 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 147.2m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 62525 51293 (LIDAR)
Drop: 10.0m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 6.36% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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